<nettime-ann> WKV Stuttgart: Re-Designing the East. Political Design in Asia and Europe

[Janos Sugar <sj@c3.hu>]

.
> RE-DESIGNING THE EAST
> Political Design in Asia and Europe
> September 25, 2010 - January 9, 2011
>
> With the exhibition Re-Designing the East: Political Design in Asia  
> and Europe, held from September 25, 2010 to January 9, 2011, the  
> Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart is highlighting critical  
> and resistive design practices in (Eastern) Europe and (South/ 
> Eastern) Asia from the nineteen-eighties through the present. Of  
> particular focus is the role of both design and designers in the  
> context of sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural  
> upheaval.
>
> "Re-Designing the East" is based upon a cooperation between the  
> Württembergischer Kunstverein, the Trafó Gallery in Budapest, the  
> Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdansk, and the Total Museum in Seoul. The  
> exhibition comprises six sections, each of which has been developed  
> by different curators from Europe and Asia.
>
> Contexts
> Since the early nineteen-nineties, the world order that was familiar  
> up to than has radically and permanently shifted, especially through  
> the fall of the so-called Eastern Bloc countries as well as through  
> a global neoliberalism and the rampant development of information  
> and communication technologies. The old concepts of the ideological  
> "East" and "West" have become obsolete. In the far away East-as  
> viewed from a Eurocentric perspective-countries like South Korea,  
> Thailand, and India have (besides China) long asserted economic  
> positions of global relevance. The onetime hierarchies beween center  
> (the "West") and periphery (the "rest") has been disrupted. At the  
> same time, there are numerous conflicts associated with the  
> purported victory of the "Western" models of democracy and capitalism.
>
> The title of the exhibition “Re-Designing the East: Political Design  
> in Asia and Europe" already references the falloff or, in any case,  
> the dubiousness of geopolitical ascriptions like "the East." At the  
> same time, the upheaval of the nineteen-eighties and nineties in  
> Europe is to be placed into relation with that currently noted in  
> Asia: and this against the backdrop of the question as to which role  
> critical and resistive design practices play within these states of  
> upheaval, meaning within the struggles for political, societal,  
> economic, ecological, and cultural reshaping.
>
> Here emphasis is placed on contexts such as the political  
> transformation prevalent in the nineteen-eighties and nineties in  
> Hungary, Poland, and former Czechoslovakia, as well as on the  
> democratization processes-still accompanied by multifaceted  
> conflicts today-and swift economic developments in India, Thailand,  
> and South Korea.
>
> Positions
> The exhibition in the process sheds light on highly divergent design  
> positions. Counting among the historical positions is, for instance,  
> the logo of the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) movement created by Polish  
> designer Jerzy Janiszewski. Also explored is the work of Czech  
> designer Joska Skalnik, who was actively involved in the so-called  
> "Velvet Revolution" and who today, however, is faced with the  
> accusation of having been an informant for Czechoslovakia's secret  
> intelligence system.
>
> Among the positions currently explored is the Indian network Design  
> & People which furthers sociopolitical projects, thus making freely  
> available, along the lines of the "copyleft," its creative works as  
> well as its knowledge for noncommercial purposes. The Thai designer  
> Pracha Suveeranont in turn presents among other things his extensive  
> boycott campaign-developed in 2007 and directed against the  
> establishment of a new constitution by election in Thailand.
>
> The South Korean group Activism of Graphic Imagination (A.G.I.) is  
> likewise engaged in activist contexts. Their works demonstrate  
> opposition to the repressive politics reigning in South Korea, which  
> have arisen through unchecked turbocapitalism and also through a  
> newly emerging "Cold War" atmosphere.
>
> A conference will accompany the opening weekend of the exhibition  
> "Re-Designing the East". Following the exhibition will be a  
> publication on the project.
>
> An exhibition by
> Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
> In co-operation with
> Trafo Gallery, Budapest
> Wyspa Institute of Art, Danzig
> Total Museum, Seoul
>
> In conjunction with the project
> "In Charge. The Role of Political Designers in Transformation"
>
> Artists
> Activism of Graphic Imagination (ROK)
> Ewa Baluk-Zaborowska (PL)
> Design & People (IND)
> Jerzy Janiszewski (PL)
> Grzegorz Klaman (PL)
> Gerard Lewandowski (PL)
> Jan Matousek (Laboratory) (CZ)
> Andrzej Pagowski (PL)
> Monika Rak (PL)
> Tomasz Sarnecki (PL)
> Joska Skalnik (CZ)
> Marek Sobczyk (PL)
> Janos Sugar (HU)
> Noh Suntag (ROK)
> Pracha Suveeranont (T)
> Michal Szlaga (PL)
> Henryk Tomaszewski (PL)
> Ania Witkowska (PL)
>
> Idea
> Keiko Sei
>
> Curators
> Maks Bochenek, Hans D. Christ / Iris Dressler, Sethu Das, Nikolett  
> Eross, Tomas Pospiszyl, Keiko Sei, Nathalie Boseul Shin
>
> <mailto:info@wkv-stuttgart.de>info@wkv-stuttgart.de
> Iris Dressler
> Phone: +49 (0)711 22 33 70
> Fax: +49 (0)711 29 36 17
>
> www.wkv-stuttgart.de
> Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
> Schlossplatz 2
> 70173 Stuttgart
> Germany
>
> September 25, 2010 - January 9, 2011
> Opening:
> Friday, September 24, 2010, 7 p.m.
> Opening Hours:
> Tue, Thu-Sun: 11 am-6 pm
> Wed: 11 am-8 pm


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